Kesnhin on CN

I heard that CN is moving kenshin to late Saturday nights after this Friday. Probably because all the violence coming up when they go to fight Shishio

Yeah, I'm very disappointed about Kenshin being moved to a once a week schedule. The shows always end with such cliffhangers, it's going to be hard to wait a week for the next episode. Guess I'll be buying the DVDs sooner than I planned, I was hoping to wait for boxsets to be released.

yeah, esspecially when its reaching probably the best part of the series!!

I think CN has done a much better job with Kenshin than they typically do. They are much more lenient in their editing now.

I heard that there was a ton of episodes.

I think there are about 96 Kenshin episodes.... but after the Kyoto arc they are all filler and not very good

I heard they made a Rorouni Kenshin OVA series, anyone heard of it?

There are actually 3 Kenshin OVAs- Trust, Betrayal, and Reflections, plus a movie. The first 2 OVAs take place before the TV series and explain about Kenshin's history, and the third takes place after. I've heard that the movie takes place sometime during the series. I haven't actually seen any of them yet, since most people recommend at least watching the entire Kyoto arc before checking them out so everything makes more sense. I've heard a lot of good things about the first 2 in particular and I'm a big fan of the series, so I'll definately be getting them- I just want to see everything in the best order!

I havent heard that much about it until now, i had a wallpaper or two, maybe a couple of articles, ect., I'll see what i can find thanks!

Rurouni Kenshin, aka the Evil Dub (that is now outdated, thank goodness) Samurai X, is now showing in the US under the title 'Wandering Swordsman Kenshin', which is perhaps the very best translation of the title I've ever heard.

Based on the 28-manga-long series written and animated by the esteemed Watsuki-sensei, Rurouni Kenshin (also called RK and RuroKen) aired in Japan some time ago, around '97, I believe (but correct me if I'm wrong). The series was dubbed into English around that time under the name 'Samurai X', but it didn't catch on and quickly faded into the background for the time being.

The series opens introducing the infamous Battousai, named for his deadly Battou-jutsu (swift sword draw) that killed before his opponents could even draw their swords. He was an assassin in the Japanese civil war (Bakumatsu, 1858, I believe), but after the war ended, he disappeared.

10 years pass. Enter Himura Kenshin, wandering swordsman, who stumbles into the life of a young girl who is trying to rescue the name of her fighting style, Kamiya Kasshin Ryu, from disgrace at the hands of a man calling himself the Battousai. After rescuing the young girl, named Kamiya Kaoru, Kenshin ends up temporarily moving in to live with her - in exchange for doing some household chores, of course. Thereafter, when the 'Battousai' threatens Kaoru again, Kenshin reveals that in fact he himself is the famous Himura Battousai and proceeds to dispatch of the fake in typical cool heroic style. And thus Rurouni Kenshin opens and closes its first episode.

The series runs 96 episodes long, following the manga up through what is commonly called the Kyoto Arc (named thus because it follows Kenshin's trip to Kyoto to save Japan from takeover at the hands of crazed ex-assassin Shishio Makoto). The last 26 episodes or so are filler arcs created exclusively for the anime, and they're pretty darned awful.

There have been repeated rumors of another season of Kenshin being produced - a season that would follow the Revenge Arc (which deals with how Kenshin got his cross scar and the revenge of figure from that sordid past) - but nothing seems to have come of it yet.

There is also an OVA that extends over 4 episodes that tells the sad tale of fifteen-year-old Kenshin as an assassin - and how he obtained his cross scar. There is another OVA that is very brief and mostly recaps the series - it seems to be perfect setup for another season, but again, I don't think anything's come of it. The art style in both OVAs differs signifcantly from the series art.

There is also a movie that takes place at some unspecified time during the series and has nothing to do with the series in general. It too has very different art, but it's fun to watch if only for the smoother style necessitated by a feature-length anime.

Now Rurouni Kenshin has been redubbed with better voice actors and little to no cuts, and it is entitled Wandering Swordsman Kenshin. This dub is signifcantly better than Samurai X, but it still loses a lot from the subtitled versions. Certainly there's nothing quite like watching Kenshin pipe out his lines in an alto/tenor voice in Japanese - since his seiyuu (voice actor) is a girl! (It's quite jarring to hear a normal male voice from his mouth after seeing that.) Additionally, as is typical with a dub, certain Japanese nuances cannot be carried across to English; for instance, Kenshin will sometimes repeat himself, adding 'that it is' to the end of a sentence, and while this is technically correct, the original phrase - 'de gozaru yo' - carries a meaning of deep respect that we obviously don't get from 'that it is'. Additionally, Kenshin refers to himself as 'Sessha', which is the rough equivalent of 'this humble person/servant'. Clearly calling himself 'I' isn't giving that meaning!

The manga set a trend and a fad in Japan for a while, and the anime is a reflection of that trend-setting work, but it is nowhere near as beautiful as the original work of Watsuki-sensei. Still, it's a fun watch (up through the Kyoto Arc, anyway), and it has a lot of beautiful fight scenes.

The best sword match ever animated in Japan, including movies, is in episodes 28 and 29 of Rurouni Kenshin - the fabled faceoff of Saitou Hajime and Himura Kenshin. Hands down, folks; there can be no dispute. You haven't seen a samurai battle until you've watched the two of them go at it in the Kamiya Dojo as the sun sets on Kenshin's firey red hair.

That pretty much covered everything...any other over-stuffed messages? anyone? well anyway the series boils down to a pretty great action anime, but from what i've seen there isnt much gore...just alot of bandages...

Finding out that it was just moved and not canceled made my day yesterday! CN cancels stuff, or moves it without warning.

From the schedule that I looked at it looks like the show was moved to 9:30 PM Saturdays. You know I'm taping it! And its early enough I can watch it!!

I really like the fight scenes...and the good dialoge.

I saw the movies, i am going to buy them soon for my Anime Club.

I hope that CN will will be even more lenient in their editing since Kenshin is moving to 9:30, thats probably why they moved it, they have to keep a lot of that violence for the story's sake.

If they edit, I hope they do a better job at it than before. Usually you can't tell, but with the last batch of episodes (like two weeks before they moved it), like I said in another thread, we have disappearing blood, (actually see blood ), and smoking toothpicks, and non-smoking toothpicks.
We'll have to wait an see Saturday. )

Yeah, I'll be recording it today!!

But, i think they have done an alright job before, yeah the smking stuff is kind of odd, lol. But suprisingly they let a lot of language get by...

Deffinitely better than in the old DBZ "send you to another dimension" crap. heh...

no not the rod man!

I personally don't like Kenshin. I mean, its got by far the worst voice actors ever. I mean the way they talk, its like their reading a grocery list. Gee, and I thought that old G.I. Joe cartoon was horrible. Of course I given up on the show at about its thirteenth episode, so I don't really no how the show has been doing in terms of plot and acting since then. But then again, I wouldn't bother watching it again.

I don't see what you all are talking about. In my opinion Kenshin has great VO's, I'm not a huge fanboy, but this show deserves better than what what's-his-name was saying about it. By the way everyone needs to get Trust and Betrayal, and you don't need to see the Kyoto Arc to understand it, or even any of the Kenshin show! It's a great OVA. I think it tops everyone's beloved Princess Mononoke in terms of quality.

No, Monoke has better scenes, while Kenshin still uses the old Talk during the battle, and still uses the sliding anime cell trick, it works the same way as just about every other anime, its much easier to use the sliding cell effect, and it looks good, but the really high quaility Animes, not that I'm saying kensin isn't good, use a harder better looking effect, in which they draw out every cell.

IMO the sound effects in Kenshin are horrible. The sword clash and the explosion sound effects come to mind.
It was good only until the end of the kyoto arc. The catholic thing and the geomancer thing were ridiculous.